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I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue

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The irreplaceable Humphrey Lyttelton note 19212008, it says something when all the other famous names in comedy have to go on rotation to fill in for you....

"For a show such as this to have lasted thirty years might be thought achievement enough in itself. But to have brought joy and laughter to thousands of listeners ... might at least have been worth a try."

— Humphrey Lyttelton, 30th-Anniversary special

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Panel Game (according to the introduction, "the antidote to panel games"note And according to Mrs. Trellis, "the antelope to panel pins") broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and the "classic radio" station BBC 7. Born in 1972, it was something of a continuation of the Sketch ShowI'm Sorry I'll Read That Again (which was also the origin of The Goodies). The main difference was that, as a panel game, they didn't need to write any scripts.

The chairman was Humphrey Lyttelton, a jazz trumpeter (the thinking being that improvisational comedy owed a lot to jazz), who created the persona of a curmudgeonly Deadpan Snarker who would rather be doing something else. Anything else note except playing the trumpet. The regular panelists for most of the show's history were Barry Cryer, Willie Rushton, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden (the third Goodie, Bill Oddie, was in the first two series). After Rushton's death in 1996, the fourth panelist became a rotating positionnote Jeremy Hardy usually appears once a series, and some of the more frequent guests have included Rob Brydon, Stephen Fry, Andy Hamilton, Tony Hawks, Paul Merton, David Mitchell and Sandi Toksvig; guests also deputise for Barry, Tim or Graeme if they are unable to make a recording. Because of the show's pedigree, and the fact that the regulars have the final say in who the guests are, being asked to appear on the show is seen as an honour (and many have turned down the opportunity for fear they might ruin it).

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Other people on the show include Colin Sell, the long-suffering pianist, and Samantha, the entirely fictional scorer, about whom many Double Entendres are made. On one occasion, Colin Sell's stand-in as duty pianist was veteran jokester musician Neil Innes, best known for the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and The Rutles. Humph introduced him as 'a man whose royalty payments on "I'm The Urban Spaceman" have just run out', to which Innes responded with several bars of the Death March from Aida.

While winning and losing is seldom an important part of Panel Games, ISIHAC views it as entirely irrelevant. In one 1997 episode, Humph commented, "It's just occurred to me Samantha hasn't given us the score. Since 1981." It would be impossible to determine who won most of the games anyway, given that many of them don't make any sense, and the "Complete Quotes" round has the warning "points will be deducted for a correct answer".

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Most of the games are simply excuses for a Hurricane of Puns, but some have a surreality bordering on nonsensical. These include "Celebrity What's My Line?" (in which the panel has to guess what a celebrity does for a living), versions of board games and other quizzes (where the joke is that we need to see what's going on to understand it), and, of course the Great Game, Mornington Crescent (a game of complex and subtle rules which, to the uninitiated, sounds like people shouting out tube stations at random) and its boardgame cousin Boardo! (complete with rattling dice and clicking counters).

There are also some musical rounds in the show. While the most popular musical game in the early years was the "Blues" (where each team has to create one on the spot), the three most popular throughout most of the show's run are "One Song to the Tune of Another" (which is self-explanatory, although Humph thinksotherwise), "Pick-Up Song" (where each of the team members have to sing along to a song which is muted half way through and still be in time with the lyrics when the sound is turned back up) and "Swanee-Kazoo" (where each team has to play a given song with a swanee whistle and a kazoo). There's usually a Running Gag at the expense of guest Jeremy Hardy whenever he's on the show as he's a hilariously terrible singer (which has extended to jokes about said singing even when he's not present).

The show has won three Golden Sony Awards, including one for I'm Sorry I Haven't A Christmas Carol, a Christmas Episode which cast all the regulars and guest panelists into a version of A Christmas Carol and somehow managed to force most of the games into the storyline. This was followed a couple of years later with Humph In Wonderland.

The future of the show was in doubt following Lyttelton's death in 2008, although Series 51 was aired in mid-2009 with Stephen Fry, Jack Dee, and Rob Brydon taking over the chair for two episodes each. Although he was not definitively stated to be the full-time replacement, the show returned to its regular schedule with Dee chairing every episode later that year; he has chaired every series since. In the 2015 tour of the live show, Sandi Toksvig took the chair for some dates.

In 2012, the show's official site was launched, which can be found here.

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Rounds

Ad-Lib Poem

The chairman gives one line setting up a rhyme to a panellist. The panellist then continues the story in rhyming verse, until the chairman buzzes, at which point the poem passes to the next panellist, who does the same until an "artistic conclusion" is reached. Tim notoriously hated this round...which, of course, often led to him starting it off. Not played nowadays.

The Bad-Tempered Clavier

The teams attempt to sing a song while Colin Sell accompanies them. Colin eventually begins changing the tempo, playing wrong notes, and playing different songs altogether. The chairman often mentions that points are deducted for players attempting to sing with their hands over their ears. Not played nowadays.

Blues

One team gives a subject for a blues to the other team. The other team then improvise a blues, with each panellist taking alternate lines. They inevitably start with "I woke up this mornin'". (Occasionally, Humph would specifically mention penalizing a team for starting a blues with that sentence, which inevitably resulted in "I rose from my bed as dawn began" or some other synonym.) Variations included 'Calypso' (always starting with "I [thing related to the topic] the other day") and 'Madrigal'. Used to be one of the most reccurring rounds, but is now rarely played.

Call My Bluff

The chairman gives the teams a word to define. The panellists then define the word, each giving different punning definitions. The chairman picks the one he thinks is true, we hear the sound of paper unfolding as the answers are revealed, and the game ends. Not played nowadays.

Censored Song

The teams take a clean song and make it absolutely filthy by strategic censoring. Still pops up occasionally, but definitely not as common as it used to be. A similar idea had been used in I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again.

Closed Quotes

Also known as Quote Misquote and Complete Quotes. The chairman reads the beginning of a quote, and one of the panellist finishes it in a humorous fashion. Quotes are generally taken from all manner of things — songs, poems, interviews, classics, opening lines, and so forth. Still frequently played.

Cheddar Gorge

The teams construct a sentence, taking one word each, with the goal being not to complete the sentence. If the chairman judges that a full stop has been reached, he'll honk his horn (ever since Jack took over, this has been replaced by a gong). Occasionally, each panellist gets a word that they'll have to "seamlessly integrate" into the story. Common ploys involve forming the sentence "and yet strangely" to force a player to describe something multiple times, or someone — frequently Tim — saying "comma" to buy time. On at least one occasion, Humph made it even harder by adding an extra rule, that all the words had to start with the same letter.

Nowadays, this is rarely played, being replaced with Letter Writing (or 84 Chicken Cross Road), which plays along the same principles with two major additions. One — instead of assembling a sentence, the teams are "writing letters" between one famous personality to another. The other team then composes a reply. Two — as you may have figured out, this is played in teams of two rather than both the teams saying words. This simplifies stalling, and someone — frequently Graeme — will often say "and" to force their teammate to come up with as many adjectives as they can. This version is still played frequently.

DIY Drama

The teams are given characters and sound effects, and then improvise a play from a given genre. Sometimes, the players are given free rein — other times, the chairman indicates scene changes or mentions which sound effects will have to be included beforehand. Very likely to go off the rails, and sound effects given to the panellists are pretty much guaranteed to pop up after the game's finished. One of the newer rounds, and played about once a series.

One panellist says some good news, the other some bad news related to the good news, and so on. ("Good news: I've got a new jacuzzi." "Bad news: It wasn't a jacuzzi when I got in..." "Good news: Jamie Lee Curtis was in it with me." "Bad news: But not for long.") Used to be quite popular, but has not been played since 1993.

Historical Headlines

The chairman says a famous historical event, and invites the players to come up with headlines. This round typically plays on the different viewpoints of different newspapers — running gags include the Sport, with its focus on supernatural events and sightings of Elvis, the Daily Mail, with its obsession with house prices, the Evening Standard, with its concentration on London-centric news, and the Independent with its no-nonsense, fact-stating reports. Inevitably, Graeme will do a "The Guardian corrections and clarifications" joke, which poke fun at the Guardian's reputation for bad spelling by replacing a misspelled headline with an equally misspelled headline. (E.g. "Yesterday's headline 'bishops tickle Darwin's monkey theory' should have read 'bishops tackle Darwin's donkey, Terry'.") The last time it showed up was in 2008.

Just A Minim

The chairman gives one of the panellists a song which they must sing without hesitation, repetition or deviation. (The songs are always picked to make this as ridiculously difficult as possible, such as Old Macdonald Had A Farm or It's Not Unusual.) Other panellists may challenge at any time if they detect hesitation, repetition or deviation, and if the chairman judges that their challenge is correct, they take over from the point where the previous singer left off. Takes its inspiration, rather obviously, from Just a Minute — Jack has taken to chairing the game using a caricature of Nicholas Parsons' energetic, enthusiastic speaking style. Still played occasionally, often as a substitute to Swanee-Kazoo.

Karaoke-Cokey

The entire audience get a song displayed on the laser display board, and have to hum it. The panellists attempt to guess what it is. In the live tours, each member of the audience gets their own kazoo for this round. Rarely played, but still pops up occasionally.

Last Episodes

The chairman gives the name of a TV series (or film, or book) to one of the panellists, and asks them to "finish it off as quickly as you can". The panellists typically do this with implications of violence, swearing, sex, puns, or other unbroadcastable material. (Such as Call My Bluff: "And your word is...(ting) ...oh my god!") Not played nowadays.

Late Arrivals

One of the most long-running games. The chairman announces a ball for a certain profession, and the panellists come up with names that are puns on this profession. (Frequently taking the format of "Will you welcome, please, Mr. and Mrs. X, and their son/daughter, Y...") The Mad Scientists' Ball, for example, would have "Mr. and Mrs. Tube, and their daughter, Tess Tube" and "Mr. and Mrs. Tomicbomb, and their daughter, Anna". Graeme, if stuck for ideas, will make a "Gordon Bennett" note "Gordon Bennet" is an exclamation of surprise -based joke, such as "Mr. and Mrs. Bennettnotanotherflamingpartypoliticalbroadcast, and their son, Gordon". Was played in the first ever episode, and is still played occasionally as the closing game of the show, as a substitute for Film Club.

Limericks

The chairman supplies the first line of a limerick, and the four panellists improvise a line each to complete it. The order of who said what line was always moved, and there would always be four limericks, so that all panellists got the ending line once. Panellists would usually be applauded for avoiding obvious obscenities. Not played nowadays.

Mornington Crescent

The Great Game. Any attempt to explain the rules would beredundant and patronizing, but it is worth mentioning that the teams frequently play with special rules or regional variations (such as scrundling being disallowed, or a penalty introduced for leapfrogging). This has led some expert players to dismiss them as amateurs for not playing by the original rules — the teams have responded to this by saying that they find the intricacies of the variations to be of greater priority than a puritan attitude. Nevertheless, they have complied occasionally by playing the original game. As such a tradition could never die, it is still played nowadays.

...Well, alright, it's an absolute load of wahooney consisting of the teams naming random stations on the London Underground and arguing vividly about made-up rules. That doesn't stop the fans from playing it themselves, though.

Name That Barcode

The chairman reads a barcode aloud (such as "thick white, thick black, thin white, thin white, thin black, thick white") and the panellists give humorous suggestions as to what it can be. Only played once.

Name That Motorway

The panellists hear the sound of a motorway, and guess which one it is. Other variations include Name That Novellist (where the panellists hear a few seconds of somebody typing on a typewriter), Name Those Roadworks, Name That Pause and the most extreme of all — Name That Silence.

Notes And Queries

The chairman asks a question to one of the panellists. They suggest a possible answer, the chairman gives the real answer, and so on. Usually, after everyone's had a go, the rest of the questions are free-for-all, where anyone may give their answer. Sometimes played under the name Household Hints or What's the Problem?.

One Song To The Tune Of Another

This can be a bit complicated, so listen carefully...a song is like a cat. The music is the cat itself, and the lyrics are the cat's food, nourishing the cat and making it stronger. The cat, or music, will eventually get hungry again, and be filled with new food, or words. And there you have it — One Song To The Tune Of Another. But I know what you're thinking — what about lovesick cats? We've all heard alley cats crooning an object of their affection, and what noise could possibly be worse than some lovesick mongrel yowling behind the dustbins? ... At the piano, Colin Sell!

Opera Time

Panellists take a bland piece of prose (recipes, scripts, extracts from scouting manuals) and turn it into an operatic duet. Played well into the eighties, but not around anymore.

Paranoia

One team suffers from a delusion or complaint, but don't know what it is. The delusion is broadcast to the audience and the other team via the laser display board, and the team with the delusion have to ask the other team questions. The other team has to respond in a manner appropriate to the first team's delusion, until the first team manage to guess what it is. This has a variation in the Doctors game, which is basically vice versa — the team with the problem know what their problem is, and the other team pose as doctors trying to diagnose them. The team with the problem answer in a manner appropriate to their problem. This version is still sometimes played.

One episode featured another variation, Scandals, where one team played the part of two people invited onto a chat show to discuss a recent scandal they were involved in. The other team, playing the part of the hosts, were aware of the scandal, and the first team had to guess what scandal they'd been implicated in.

Pick-Up Song

Samantha spins some discs on the chairman's gramophone, which a chosen panellist should sing along to. The music then drops out, but the singer continues singing, and if, when the music returns, he's within a midge's semi-quaver from the original, he'll be awarded points (allegedly). And points mean prizes, what do points mean?

...Yes. The prizes are always some pun, such as the one for "the pet-lover who doesn't want their exotic pet to get lost — this stamped, addressed antelope". Or just silly. ("This week's prize is for the animal lover who wants to keep warm in bed. It's this hot water buffalo.") Still played nearly every other episode.

Sound Charades

The laser display board shows the title of a work for the audience and one team. The team then performs a small, improvised sketch, typically using a contrived pun or other wordplay. Nowadays, Barry and Graeme make all their sketches about two eccentric Scotsmen, Hamish and Dougal, setting up jokes and puns for each other seamlessly. Still played nowadays.

Stars In Their Ears

Also known as The Singer And The Song. Panellists sing songs in the style of a famous personality, drawing on accent imitation and impersonations for the humor. Still played occasionally.

Straight Face

The panellists say one word each, with the goal being not to provoke laughter from the audience. (The chairman often mentions how they've been training a lot for this.) If anyone elicits even the slightest titter from the audience, they're eliminated, and the game goes on until only one remains. Inherently Funny Words make this round harder than it sounds. (A variation had the panellists saying punchlines to jokes instead of just words.) Still occasionally played.

Suitcases

One team lists things beginning with a letter randomly chosen by the chairman, with the pretense of packing these things in a suitcase. The other team may challenge if they believe the object wouldn't fit in a suitcase or wouldn't be suitable on holiday. If the chairman upholds the challenge, they take over listing things with a randomly selected letter of their own. Not played nowadays.

Swanee-Kazoo

The teams play a song using a swanee whistle and a kazoo. (Tim and Graeme always play the swanee whistles, whereas Barry and Tim's guest always play the kazoos — although when Sandi Toksvig stood in for Graeme, Barry had a one-off go at the swanee whistle.) The humor comes from the naturally silly sound of these two instruments (usually described by the chairman as "the cheeky rasp of the kazoo and the smooth ululation of the swanee whistle"). Still played about every second episode.

Uxbridge English Dictionary

Formerly known as New Definitions, and renamed after a book containing the best definitions. The panellists say a word, then give a definition of the word, usually by breaking it down into smaller words or making a pun on an already-existing word. (Such as "Impolite: note Imp alight To set fire to a pixie.") Barry will occasionally say a word and define it as how Sean Connery would pronounce something. ("Pastiche: note pasties What Shean Connery eatsh in Cornwall.") Finest ever example was by Stephen Fry, who defined "Countryside" as "to kill Piers Morgan". Basically, Hurricane of Puns at its maximum. Still played.

Word for Word

The word disassociation game. One team exchange a random series of words with no connection whatsoever. The other team may challenge if they spot a connection, and if the chairman agrees with the challenge, they take over. Words with a direct connection are usually ignored in favor of words with a roundabout, absurd connection. ("Kangaroo." "Hop." "(buzz) A kangaroo might go to a dance...which, in America, is known as a hop.") Barry has made a habit out of buzzing in on any two words and claiming they were a sixties rock band. Still played.

Tropes:

A-M

Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: Humph would usually do this rather subtly, placing — or neglecting to place — emphasis on a word to completely change the meaning of the sentence.

Humph: The chairman of Just a Minute is, of course, the irrepressible Nicholas Parsons. I never miss him.

Accidental Misnaming: In an episode when Tony Hawks was the guest, Humph pointed out an oddity in the buzzers.

Humph: I'll tell you who we haven't had a challenge from...Bill. They've stuck your names on the buzzers here, and it says "Barry", "Graeme", "Tim" and "Bill".

Andy:(sullen) Are you trying to tell me I was a late booking?

Tim: I hope that's not Bill Bailey from the last series...that'd be really sad.

Acquired Error at the Printer: Any round of "Historical Headlines" will feature someone (probably Barry) citing a misprinted headline from The Guardian (which has a reputation for this kind of thing). For example, Barry claimed that The Guardian's headline for the Great Fire of London would have been "London's Burping!".

Most notable is the "Just A Minim" round, where they have to sing a well-known song without hesitation, repetition, or deviation — needless to say, the songs are deliberately chosen to make this hard, Old McDonald Had A Farm being one hilarious example. Since Jack Dee took over as host, the parody has extended to Jack channelling Just a Minute chairman Nicholas Parsons' effusive hosting style.

In unrelated rounds that involve the buzzer (such as 'Word for Word'), panellists (particularly Tim note who, ironically, has made the fewest appearances on Just a Minute of the three surviving regulars, with three appearances compared to Graeme's seven and Barry's 26) have also been known to issue challenges of hesitation, deviation or repetition.

Humph: Graeme, here's a first line for you. "While out on the shores of Loch Ness..."

Graeme: "...I was startled to see Rudolf Hess..."

Artifact Title: The title was originally meant to echo I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again, but since Clue has outlived its parent show by decades, a lot more people know about Clue than ISIRTA. Also, the subtitle "the antidote to panel games" doesn't make as much sense now as it used to — back when it was created, there were way more 'serious' panel games on the BBC, rather than the generally comic tone ofthoseplayednowadays. Graeme once jokingly suggested to change it to "the template for panel games".

In Sound Charades, the audience will react with either applause or booing depending on how accurate the guesses of the guessing team are.

In Pick-Up Song, they occasionally clap (something pointed out by Humph is that the audience seldom know the exact rhythm, thus misleading the singer into going faster or slower than they should) or sing along.

In Mornington Crescent, they applaud, collectively gasp, cheer — and one or two members of the audience has actually yelled out possible moves.

And, of course:

Humph: And prizes mean points. What do prizes mean?

Audience:(hesitant) Points!

Humph: ...Well, at least you're halfway intelligent.

The audience spontaneously claps and cheers at the announcement of Mornington Crescent, and in recent years has also started doing this for "One Song to the Tune of Another", "Pick-Up Song" or any time Jeremy Hardy is called upon to sing.

Humph: Once an odd combination, the swanee whistle and the kazoo now go together as well as bangers and mash, fish and chips, and diarrhea and vomiting.

Brick Joke: One show has a round in which Jack asks "Where's the Gents'?". Barry buzzes in and answers ("Down the stairs, second on the right"), and Jack goes on to introduce the next round, Mornington Crescent. Halfway through that round, deep in a discussion of the minutiae of the rules, Tim asks Jack for an adjudication — and the sound of a flush is heard, followed by Jack hurrying back up the stairs to the game.

If someone challenges for repetition, hesitation, or deviation in a round outside Just A Minim, Jack has taken to replying with his Nicholas Parsons impression. "No, no, Tim, I don't think that's right...but the audience enjoyed your challenge so much!"

The Butler Did It: Spoofed in a round where the players had to improvise a detective story with the title "Murder by Moonlight": almost immediately, Barry Cryer established that "Moonlight" was the name of the butler. He turned out to be innocent in the end, though.

Butt-Monkey: Pianist Colin Sell, who is the butt of at least one joke per episode. "Now listeners will be surprised to hear that pop legend Cliff Richard once insisted that Colin play in The Shadows... but then, he's not a pretty sight in broad daylight."

If Colin ever speaks up, someone will usually respond with either "Sorry, who are you?" or "You keep out of this".

Calvinball: Mornington Crescent and several other games, including "Boardo" which includes elements of every board game ever, and the "Quiz Of Quizzes" which does the same thing for other Panel Games and game shows.

Humph: So, Barry and Graeme, you were right to go lower. And Tim gets ten points. Tim, question or nominate?

"Adjudication, Humph?" said by Barry, whenever an argument about the rules of Mornington Crescent cropped up.

Back when the show still ended every show with "The [Profession] Ball", the phrase "Will you welcome, please, Mr. and Mrs..." was often used, and frequently subverted, being substituted with poetic nonsense.

Barry: Lift the hems of several garments!

Graeme: Snap your garters with riddled mirth!

Graeme: ...Mr and Mrs Bennett-generic-expression-of-disbelief, and their son: Gordon. Although in these latter days, Gordon appears to have left home and his younger brothers Bait and Switch accompany their parents.

Catchphrase Interruptus: On more than one occasion when introducing the "Pick-Up Song" round, after Humph has said "And points mean prizes". On one occasion he left a very long pause and the audience eventually shouted back "PRIZES!"; on another the audience interrupted him with a loud "oooh", prompting absolute bafflement from the panel.

Censored for Comedy: The "Censored Songs" round, in which they sing karaoke with strategically-placed censor bleeps to make the song sound a lot ruder than it originally was. This game arguably never bettered the episode in which we heard...

* bleep* * bleep* and * bleep* * bleep* and

* bleep* * bleep* and * bleep* * bleep*

''* bleep* * bleep* and * bleep* * bleep* and

* bleep* * bleep* and * bleep* * bleep*

* bleep* * bleep* and * bleep* * bleep* all tied up with string,

These are a few of my favourite things...

Another brilliant one "Whenever I feel a[buzz] / I hold my [buzz] erect / And whistle a happy tune / so no one will suspect I'm a[buzz]... Whenever I [buzz] / The people I [buzz] / I [buzz] myself as well..."

In one round of Closed Quotes, the quotes came from an interview with Ozzy Osbourne. Humph censored the more explicit words by honking his horn.

As for Simon Cowell, I think he's a (honk)ing (honk)hole.

In a round of Sound Charades, Tim and Jeremy illustrated The Sopranos by putting on high-pitched soprano voices and talking like typical gangsters, excessive swearing and all. The swearing was all bleeped out in the broadcast version, which Barry predicted — afterward, he quipped "You'll bleep with the fishes!"

Cloudcuckoolander: Mrs. Trellis of North Wales, who writes many letters, e-mails, texts and so on to the show under the mistaken belief that she's writing to another show, always confusing the chairman for some other programme host. Usually, these messages make some amount of sense. Sometimes, they're just...weird.

Dear Mr. Nick,I'm on the train.Yours sincerely, Mrs. Trellis

This was an example of a joke about people on the train who answer their mobile phone (then a relatively new thing) and loudly and obnoxiously talk about inane things (stereotypically beginning 'I'm on a train'), to the annoyance of the other passengers. In The '90s they were so prevalent to be a time-specific Mattress Tag Gag (see Trigger Happy TV).

The letters are usually puns, topical jokes, or, as stated above, jokes about communication. (An e-mail from Mrs. Trellis is usually filled with confused strokes and slashes, for instance.)

Dear Dr. Clare,So glad that Tim Brooke-Taylor is back. Without him the show was like Hamlet without the balcony scene.

Comically Missing the Point: A frequent source of humour (as in Celebrity What's My Line?, where a celebrity is introduced and the panellists have to guess what they do for a living).

Often in Sound Charades, when the guessing team have figured the charade out, they'll name something humorously out of the blue.

Graeme: A boy called Harry...who's doing something naughty.

Barry: Or dirty.

Graeme: Ah, yes. Dirty Potter!

The Comically Serious: Any time a patently ridiculous round is introduced, the chairman will explain the rules as if it makes perfect sense, and the teams will often try to play it "seriously", such as "Name That Barcode".

The Complainer Is Always Wrong: In one episode, Barry buzzed in to ask if an action wasn't in complete violation of the rules. Humph removed some of his marks for not knowing the rules, and Barry buzzed in again, stating that he knew the rules now and could he have his marks back please. Humph gave them back, but removed them again for interrupting.

Corpsing: Frequently. Whenever Letter Writing is played, Tim and his guest will almost certainly end up having to pause because they're laughing so hard.

Barry is also a terrible offender, and is particularly noticeable due to his loud, distinctive laugh.

Humph's "tributes" to Lionel Blair while introducing Sound Charades often cause panelists to corpse — Sandi Toksvig's helpless laughter in an early 2002 episode led to one full minute of uninterrupted audience laughter going out over the air. In 2001, another Sound Charades intro left Phill Jupitus plaintively asking for Humph and the others to wait while he composed himself.

In the "Limericks" round, any line ending in "unt" (such as 'hunt' or 'punt') would always provoke masses of laughter.

Creepy Monotone/Dull Surprise: Humph sometimes used this for laughs, such as giving the teams praise in a wooden tone that suggested he was wearily reading out a prescripted line. Probably the best example is when he used Anne Robinson's catchphrase in a round parodying The Weakest Link but without any of the viciousness:

Humph: Who's. Not pulling their weight. Who's. Dragging you down. It's time to vote off. The weakest link.

Curse Cut Short: In a 'General Knowledge Quiz' round where Humph gives the answers and the team supply the questions, Stephen Fry responds to 'Scrape the flesh roughly with the teeth' by saying 'How do you not give a bl-... I can't say that.'

Deadpan Snarker: Humph. His entire persona was that of a bored old man who was baffled and annoyed by the entire show and everyone who was on it.

Humph: In "Hunt The Slipper", I'll sit with my eyes closed while the slipper is passed around behind the teams' backs. After a few seconds of slipper-passing, I shall call out "slipper search on", and then I'll open my eyes. Obviously I shall have no idea where the slipper is, but the teams should keep passing the slipper around secretly, and I shall have to guess who's holding the slipper and challenge them by pointing and calling out "slipper holder". (beat) ...I'm seventy-eight, for Christ's sake.

Delayed Reaction: In Word For Word, Graeme will occasionally challenge for a connection on two words a long time after they've been spoken.

Don't Explain the Joke: A couple of shows have featured someone doing this to cover a joke that didn't get a laugh, ending by adding "and I wish I was dead". In one recent episode, Tim did this, and Jack said "Tim, the audience are right."

Another variation is when someone tells a joke that doesn't get a laugh, wait for a joke that does, and then repeat the joke. If it doesn't get a laugh then, expect it to be turned into a Running Gag.

A further variation is to completely kill the joke with overexplanation, thereby making it funny again.

[In the Historical Headlines round, the subject is Walter Raleigh presenting tobacco and potatoes at the court of Queen Elizabeth]

In one episode, Humph explained one of the jokes in his introduction long after the audience had finished laughing, then added "That was for any of the stupider listeners at home."

Dreadful Musician: What poor Colin Sell is accused of being, and what some of the panellists actually are when it comes to singing, notably the long-suffering Jeremy Hardy. In one game of "Pick-up Song" where he actually did a passable job (with "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now"), everyone reacted with shock.

Tim: Where the hell did that come from? Your twin brother Jeremy couldn't sing at all!

invokedDude, Not Funny!: In one episode, Humph messes up one of his lines. The cast respond to it by pretending to treat him like a doddering old man. The audience generally reacts with laughter, but when Barry rubs it in by saying "Your trumpet went very well at the auction!", there's a pretty huge audience groan to signify he's gone too far.

Early Installment Weirdness: The very first episode is introduced as being "a panel game" rather than an "antidote", and has Humph actually attempting to award points (after One Song to the Tune of Another, he gives Tim and Bill points because their turn "didn't take as long").

In the earlier years of the show, it didn't tour, so the intro lacks Humph's routine about where the show is being recorded this week.

Samantha wasn't introduced until 1985, over ten years into the show's run.

The Eeyore: "Humph" is a very apt name indeed. Jack Dee was a worthy successor, having done a similar shtick for years.

Even the Guys Want Him: After Rob Brydon sang "Delilah" in Pick-Up Song (prompting a very long, enthuastic ovation), this exchange occurred.

Tim: We're going to have to throw all of these back now...

Barry: Those Y-fronts were mine, Tim.

In an 1990's episode where Barry had sung "It's Not Unusual" in the same round:

Humph: If we could have these knickers cleared away...

Willie: Could I have mine back?

Tim: Gosh, here are some women's ones!

Exactly What It Says on the Tin: One of the games is called "One Song to the Tune of Another". If you think of a song as being a tin of music, filled with lyrics, it involves removing the lid from one song and scooping out the lyrics, discarding the tune (which isn't necessary for the game and can be recycled according to your local authority's refuse disposal guidelines), and emptying out the tune of another song (discarding the lyrics, in this case, which can either be saved in a covered dish in the refrigerator, or thrown away). You should now have one set of lyrics, and one tune. The clever bit is that you now combine the two, singing the words of the first song to the tune of the second — analogous to putting the contents of the first tin into the second. As should be clear by this point, all this is a complete aversion of the trope, as what is inside the tin is not at all what it says on the tin, but what it says on the tin in the bin.

And speaking of bins, here's Colin Sell on the piano.

Felony Misdemeanor: In one episode, a variant on the "Mystery Illness" game was played called "Scandals". The scandal Tim and Jeremy had to guess they'd been involved in was accepting honours for cash. Barry and Graeme... had accepted a booking on Quote, Unquote.

Jeremy: That's harsh!

"Flowers for Algernon" Syndrome: in I'm Sorry I Haven't A Christmas Carol, Humph (or "Ebenezer Scrumph") sees visions of his past, present and future that prompt him to stop being a grumpy misanthrope and become nice - but when he tries to chair a panel game the panellists quickly realise that the programme doesn't work with a nice Humph. They send him back to normal by subjecting him to a round of Swanee-Kazoo.

Willie (about "One Man And His Dog"): The French could have One Man and his Frog...the Norwegians could have One Man and his Log...the Albanians could have One Man and King Zog!

Fun with Foreign Languages: Translated Phrases, which gives us such translations as Film Noir = "my photos haven't come out", and variations of the theme of adapting song/film/TV titles or proverbs for foreign audiences.

Funny Background Event: Yes, on radio. Occasionally on Pick-Up Song, the panellists who aren't singing will banter, joke, make comments or otherwise fool around in the background, aiming to get the singer to crack up.

Barry:(singing Charles Aznavour's "She") She may be the song that summer sings,May be the chill that autumn brings,May be a hundred different things—

Tim: I love you, Barry.

Barry:(laughing)Within the measure of a day...

In another round of the same, Barry sung "Delilah". Tim can be heard saying "No—no, put them back on, madam," to someone in the audience.

During one round of 'Pick Up Tune', the panellist singing 'Living next door to Alice' is accompanied by the audience very audibly joining in with 'Who the fuck is Alice?'note During live performances of "Living Next Door to Alice" by New World, after the titular line the audience would often reply "Alice? Who the fuck is Alice!?" When British band Smokie covered the song, they also made a parody version featuring EXTREMELY blue comedian Roy 'Chubby' Brown shouting the aforementioned line at the appropriate times in the song. Which was LEFT IN the edit!

Getting Crap Past the Radar: Radio 4 has a very liberal censorship policy, but ISIHAC takes great delight in trying to skirt what boundaries do exist.

Anything involving Samantha is particularly bad for this, as seen below — as one of hundreds of examples. Happily, its spirit lives on in Janet And John on the Radio 2 breakfast show.

Sadly, Clue has proven even more immortal than that one time institution, as the Marshes have ceased sailing close to the wind since the untimely death of Sir Terry Wogan ... but the antidote to panel games marches steadfastly on under Jack's curmudgeonly stewardship.

Given that the script is what has to get past the censor, as opposed to the recording, all the writers had to do was ensure everything looked perfectly-innocent on paper and let Humph do the rest. Stephen Fry has been picking up the baton admirably.

phnaar phnaar.

On some occasions, there is no radar full stop. A late-90s episode broadcast the phrase "Holy shit!" completely uncensored, even on the Sunday lunchtime repeat.

Homoerotic Subtext: Whenever it would get a laugh. For some reason, Barry and Graeme are especially prone to it.

Barry:(in an elimination round) So it's just you and me now, is it?

Graeme: Yeah.

Barry: I give it three weeks.

When Sven's standing in for Samantha as scorekeeper, the subtext is usually just plain text. ("Well, from the big hand sweeping around my little ticker...I see that Sven's up to his old tricks again.")

From a round of Notes And Queries:

Humph: Okay, here's one—why do we kiss?

Graeme: It was a moment of madness, Humph!

Barry: We are what we are, Humph.

Tim: There's no need to resign.

Hurricane of Puns: Especially in the "New Definitions" round, which posits phonetically-based new definitions for words, such as "Fervent: Device required when tumble-drying cats", "Cruise Control: Scientology", and "Countryside: To murder Piers Morgan".

The new series gave us "Farcical: A bike that makes you look like an idiot" and followed it with the sublime "Lackadaisical: A bicycle made for one".

Highlights were later collected into a book, the Uxbridge English Dictionary, itself a pun on the Universities of Oxbridge and the distinctly un-elite town of Uxbridge on the outskirts of London (although that town does have a university itself, Brunel university).

Humph: We're now going to play a radio version of the popular TV programme, Blind Date. But we're going to play the Italian version - Venetian Blind Date.

Informed Attribute: Parodied with the "LASER DISPLAY BOARD" (sometimes extra words suggesting technical brilliance are added into the description) which allegedly informs the studio audience of whatever the secret is, as the Mystery Voice does for the listeners at home. Of course, like Samantha it's entirely fictional, and there's an audience laugh when the secret turns out to be written on an ordinary cue card which the show producer runs across the stage with.

One of the many features of the internet-linked liquid-crystal laser display board is to confuse the listeners at home who haven't been to a recording, and to make them wonder why the audience laugh when the title is displayed.

Informed Flaw: There are incessant jokes about Colin Sell's terrible piano-playing, even though he is actually an excellent pianist and plays flawlessly in every episode.note Except in the "Bad-Tempered Clavier" game where his playing is deliberately awful for comic effect, which in itself requires great skill.

Innocent Innuendo: Humph excelled at this, saying the secret was down to reading everything one word at a time so you don't actually know what you're reading. Often centres around Samantha.

Law of Disproportionate Response: Humph put up with most of the show, whatever silliness was going on. However, he'd occasionally pause in the middle of a round of Closed Quotes or Notes And Queries to point out how stupid or boring the answers were.

Humph: The answer [to the question "how can eggshells be used in the garden?"] is "put the eggshells in a barrel of water, remove them, and water your geran..." ...just throw the bloody things away.

In Straight Face (a round in which each panellist says a word, and whoever elicits "even the slightest titter" from the studio audience is eliminated), Humph would usually ignore massive audience laughter, but yell "Titter!" at the very slightest giggle, or even total silence.

It can become something of a Running Gag for one particularly downbeat song to be used as the tune for several completely inappropriate sets of lyrics; "The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves" has been used for "I'm Too Sexy", "The Gummy Bear Song" and the theme tune from The Muppet Show.

There's also the "Opera Time" game, where they sing the words of something banal (like a recipe) as an operatic duet.

Lyrical Tic: The improvised blues songs were always filled with cries of "Yeah, man" or "tell it like it is" or "whoa" or anything else appropriate, fitting in with the scratchy-gravelly, 'deep American South' voices they adopted. When Stephen Fry was once filling in for Graeme, his immaculately clean voice made this complicated, so he simply said "various American noises from the back of my throat".

Malaproper: After he was awarded an OBE in 2001, Mrs. Trellis sent a letter congratulating Barry on "finally receiving an oboe".

Humph once introduced an episode of Letter Writing with "There's nothing like badly-written English to really make my goat boil."

Dougal: I see you're up a ladder. Hamish: Oh, it's a lovely view from up here. Dougal: I wish I could say the same.

Metaphorgotten: Humph's unnecessarily-complicated analogies to explain the concept of One Song To the Tune Of Another.

"Anyone having trouble grasping this concept may care to consider a song to be like a tree. The leaves represent the words, which occasionally fall off to be replaced later by new leaves, or different words. Obviously, the discarded words don't form a slimy layer on top of your lawn like leaves do, that is why they should be swept up and placed in a heap to be burnt on bonfire night to the accompaniment of loud bangs as the hedgehogs explode. Now I come to think of it, there is no record of a few song lyrics ever causing an express train to sit outside Tunbridge Wells station for nine hours at a time, not that you would think leaves on the line would be such a problem these days, so few trains actually seem to stay on them. I can guess what you are thinking — what kind of species of tree is this? Is it an Elder? Is is an Ash? You could try asking a so called expert, but in all likelihood he wouldn't know his Ash from his Elder. At the piano, Colin Sell."

Medium Awareness: Routinely subverted. Since the show is non-fictional, everyone has medium awareness, but the trope is relevant because of the show's tendency to use visual imagery on the radio. For example, in the (now rarely played) round Call My Bluff, all of the panellists give their own definition of a word, then reveal which one was true. We hear the rustles of paper as the answers are shown (and possibly some interested mumbling), and that's it.

In an early episode, the audience were treated to the teams playing a round of Hide and Seek on stage. This was topped in a later episode by the teams playing another round of Hide and Seek, where the studio audience hid from the teams!

This sort of thing used to happen all the time, in fact — there would be rounds were panellists tried to eat an apple without using their hands (with scattered comments throughout), for instance. Not to mention the jigsaw puzzles and board games.

Musical Gag: Colin will occasionally play a quick jingle or sting after a joke, and whenever the singing rounds get really off-track, he tends to change the melody around or segue into another song altogether, before continuing as normal.

Jack Dee:(in Just A Minim) Don't even contemplate a short fling...or even an affair...because I'm quite nasty when I get cross...I have problems with rejection...(Colin plays the first five notes of The Sailor's Hornpipe)

No Fair Cheating: In a round of Bedtime Stories (one panellist tells a story, and their team member has to try and play appropriate sound effects, while wearing headphones making them unable to hear the story), Graeme tried to sidestep the rules by making his own sound effects. Tim loudly accused him of being a cheat throughout the rest of the round.

Orphaned Punchline: Inverted during the usual Take That! against Colin in an introduction to "One Song to the Tune of Another". Humph read out "Even after all these years, the sound of Colin's playing still makes me want to clap"; this alone was enough to get laughter and a round of applause from the audience, and he decided not to bother with the punchline.note It wasn't until the episode was released as part of the "Live" CD range that the punchline was revealed as part of the retakes between shows: "Both hands over both ears!"

Our Product Sucks: The show was punctuated by the host Humph commenting on horrible the programme was, both in concept and execution; implying that he wanted to be somewhere (indeed, anywhere) else; wondering why anyone would be listening to this; suggesting their listener numbers were in single figures; etc. The contestants often agreed.

The lengthy analogies introducing "One Song to the Tune of Another", which build up to a Take That! at Colin Sell.

In one round of Mornington Crescent, Jack was asked for ajudication, and said he'd check the rules. We then got the sound of footsteps going down a corridor, a door creaking open, a book being rustled, the footsteps again, and a cheer from the audience as Jack presumably returned to the stage ... to tell the teams "It doesn't say."

Overly Narrow Superlative: Humph will often introduce a letter from Mrs. Trellis by saying they've received "slightly less than two letters" or "slightly more than one letter".

"This was by far the most entertaining letter we received out of several hundred others...from Mrs. Trellis."

Plato Is a Moron: "Eton's most famous former pupils include The Duke Of Wellington, William Gladstone, George Orwell, and Humphrey Lyttelton, the jazz musician and panel game host. It doesn't say what those other three are famous for."

Humph mentioning which team he thinks "won that round" is enough to get a laugh in itself.

This was lampshaded heavily in one episode. Right after Humph has said "And points mean prizes", he pauses, then comments on how ridiculous that is, since he hasn't given a point since the old king died. "I mean...what do points mean?" "PRIZES!" "Shut up!"

In earlier episodes, points were sometimes awarded, but they were rarely added up to a total.

Politeness Judo: Occasionally, when the other team announce that their work for Sound Charades is a book / film / TV series, Graeme will casually ask "What's it called?"

Precision F-Strike: In one round, the teams are asked to imagine the result of certain companies merging. Barry says that Lastminute.com and Firkin Breweries would merge to get "Last Firkin Minute", and Tim comes up with Kellog's All-Bran merging with Bernard Matthews Farms to get "something that's Norfolk and tasty". note Say it aloud and you'll understand.

"Rashomon"-Style: In a series of interviews with the different cast members, one of the questions was "How was Samantha discovered?". Everyone has a separate story. (Humph claims she was working behind the bar at The BBC canteen — once-producer Paul Mayhew-Archer implies he discovered her in a strip club — Jeremy says she was working as a waiter and Graeme made her have extensive plastic surgery.)

Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud: Humph would occasionally do it, and similarly he would say things like "That was a good round" in a wooden tone suggesting it was written into the script and his own opinion was quite different (sometimes specifically saying "or that's what it says here, anyway") or changing the emphasis of the phrase.

Humph: It says here, "If that dies on its arse do another one. (beat) What does it mean when it's in brackets?

Running Gag: "Mornington Crescent" segments always start with Humph reading out the one letter they've had sent in this week, which is always from a Mrs. Trellis of North Wales, and is addressed to some other radio presenter.

"One Song To The Tune Of Another" is introduced by Humph explaining the simple concept by means of an impossibly obtuse and roundabout metaphor, always finishing with a crack at pianist Colin Sell.

Similarly, the show begins with Humph talking about the city in which it's being recorded this week (with jokes about its reputation and history) before segueing into an insult directed at the contestants.

"Salisbury Plain is of course known for Stonehenge, but these days who really wants to spend half an hour staring at some ancient ruins whose true purpose is a mystery? (Beat) Let's meet the teams."

Humph would also close the show with a saying usually involving Fate, Destiny, Time and Eternity, but sometimes also Hope, Despair and Doom.

"And so, ladies and gentlemen, as the short-sighted terrier of Time chases the startled stick insect of Hope, and the supple dachshund of Fate is knotted by the absent-minded balloon magician of Eternity..."

In earlier episodes he instead sometimes ended with a joke about looking at his watch and seeing they'd run out of time:

"Looking at my watch, I notice that Mickey Mouse's arm is pointing upwards while Goofy's leg is pointing downwards, and I realise that my Rolex is a fake. And also, we've run out of time."

Members of Humph's posh family were often mentioned on the show as well.

"[Guy Fawkes's] co-conspirators included one Humphrey Lyttelton, who was dragged in chains to Guildford and publicly executed. Imagine the shame brought upon my family. Apparently they were okay about 'publicly executed', but Guildford!"

The introduction to "Sound Charades" involves Humph comparing it to Give Us A Clue (the TV version of Charades) and making some homosexual Innocent Innuendo about that show's regular Lionel Blair.

"On one occasion he had tears in his eyes as the rules prevented him from using his mouth to finish off Two Gentlemen of Verona."

"Opposing team captain Una Stubbs watched open-mouthed as he pulled off 12 Angry Men in under thirty seconds."

Later seasons' "Sound Charades" also invariably feature Barry and Graeme's "Hamish and Dougal" characters, who begin every sketch with "Ah, Hamish!" "Ah, Dougal!" "You'll have had your tea?"

Played with in one episode where Andy Hamilton was standing in for Graeme.

In the "songbook" version, Barry often does one based on "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" (for example, in "Pharmacist's Songbook", "Super canine pencil styptic, Ex-Lax and some douches".

Barry will also sometimes do an Anti Humour one where he just replaces one word in a list of media with the same word related to the subject without it being a pun, ending with a Comically Missing the Point one. For example, Entomologist's Book Club:

In "Late Arrivals", another Hurricane of Puns game, if the players are having trouble coming up with names that the audience doesn't consider an Incredibly Lame Pun, someone (usually Graeme) will inevitably resort to the old standby of a "Gordon Bennett"-based joke (e.g., "Mr. and Mrs. Bennett-look-at-the-size-of-that-crab, and their son Gordon Bennett-look-at-the-size-of-that-crab" at the Fisherman's Ball).

When a round went on for a bit, Humph would pointedly mention that he had a gig in Hull the following week.

Also to punctuate that a round had gone on too long, Barry sometimes mentioned that he had black hair when they started.

In "Word For Word" (the "word disassociation game" where they have to say a word completely unrelated to the last one), Barry would sometimes challenge by claiming that two words put together were the name of a sixties rock band. This would sometimes be further elaborated on with Barry being challenged to sing one of their songs.

In the same game, if a challenge is awarded to Barry and Graeme, Graeme will sometimes begin by saying an affirmative word such as "Okay", or "Right", and, after a beat, add "That was my word." Eventually subverted:

Jack: Okay, carry on please, Graeme. Graeme: Me? Jack: Yes.

[Beat; audience laughter as they expect Graeme to answer "That was my word."]

Jack: Well, the next game is called "Word For Word", and it's where players — hang on, this is the next game, we've just done that.

Graeme: Jack?

Jack: Yeah?

Graeme: That's my word.

Jack: Oh, shut up.

In Cheddar Gorge, saying "comma" to buy time, or three contestants conspiring to create the phrase "...and yet strangely..." to force someone to describe something twice (or more).

In the introduction to Cheddar Gorge, Humph would sometimes define the noise made by the klaxon horn. "If I decide that a full stop has been reached, you'll hear this...(honk)...as I prod a baby elephant with a stick."

One person saying 'and' or 'yet' in Letter Writing, the two-man version of Cheddar Gorge.

In early seasons, Humph would say they were just about to play a game called "Wobbling Bunnies". There was either never enough time, or "the apparatus" hadn't arrived yet.

Quote... Unquote is one of the show's recurring targets, which frequent jokes about how unfunny it isnote Which stems from Radio 4's scheduling shuffle in the mid-90s, which saw Clue and The News Quiz move and Quote Unquote promoted to the 6:30pm slot.

Whenever Humph was particularly inattentive, Barry would respond by treating him as a senile old man. ("The visitors are coming in a minute! ...Put your trousers on!")

This once combined with the 'gig in Hull' gag, when the teams had just finished a round with no reaction from Humph. Barry yelled "We've finished, Humph! We'll go for a walk on the seafront later!", to which Humph responded "I've just left for next Thursday's gig in Hull."

In games like Just A Minim and Word For Word where challenges are allowed, Humph would occasionally accept a challenge, then let the subject go to anyone except the person who had challenged.

In Uxbridge English Dictionary, Barry will occasionally say a word ending in '-ish' or '-y', and define it as 'rather like [word]'. (Such as "Vanish: Rather like a van.")

Sometimes there are running gags that only last the length of that episode, such as in this round of Uxbridge English Dictionary:

Sarcasm-Blind: The chairman will occasionally vary the "points mean prizes" catchphrase (such as "and points mean failures at Crewe"), while still expecting the audience to yell out "Prizes!" when prompted. Occasionally, however, one or two Sarcasm-Blind members of the audience will yell out the variation.

Sarcasm Mode: Everything the chairman says which isn't directly insulting, stealthily insulting, or leading up to a joke will be delivered like this.

Scare 'em Straight: In one round of Closed Quotes, the quotes were taken from PSAs. A few of them were so hilariously horrifying that the panellists burst out laughing when the real answers were shown.

In a round of Notes And Queries, the questions were all taken from children.

Child: What would happen if I didn't tidy my toys?

Graeme: Well, the tidy-goblin would come and chop you into little bits and then file all the bits alphabetically. Now, go to sleep.

Schizo Tech: In the one-time game "Dragon's Den", the teams try to introduce "money" and "wheels" in a medieval setting, when buses, circular saws, and credit cards have been invented.

Tony: Currently at the moment, you've got all these planes flying around the area, completely unable to land.

Shout-Out: In spades, especially the Songbook, Film Club or Book Club rounds, which revolve around making puns about popular films (or songs, or books). Then there are rounds like No Budget, which are about modifying book, film, or TV titles to reflect their, well, lack of budget.

Show Stopper: Many of the more familiar running gags and rounds such as the introduction to Mornington Crescent and "Your turn, Jeremy" in a singing round.

Show The Folks At Home: In any round such as Sound Charades or Scandals, the "mystery voice" reads out what the other team has to guess.

Signature Sound Effect: Humph had a car horn which made a distinctive honking noise, used for Cheddar Gorge or to signal the end of a round. Since Jack took over, a gong has been used for the same purposes.

Small Name, Big Ego: Humph wasn't exactly a small name, but his opinion that the role of chairman made him the most important person in the world was part of his persona. Woe betide the one who discussed the rules of Mornington Crescent and came to a conclusion — he'd always burst in with a statement of "You haven't decided anything, it's not up to you to decide anything, I'm the chairman".

Smurfette Principle: When Sandi Toksvig first appeared in 1997, she remarked how thrilled she was to be 'in the long line of women who have appeared on the show' (she was the third, and the show had been running for twenty five years). This provoked considerable laughter from the audience, and a sort of 'oooh' noise from Tim Brooke-Taylor.

Barry Cryer proceeded to make the apologetic comment: "Well, they were all in the factories when we started!"

Stealth Insult: The final sentence of the introduction to the town they're in will invariably double up as an insult to the contestants.

Stock Sound Effects: In the DIY round (where the panellists are forced to improvise a story around sound effects) and in Cow/Lake/Bomb (the ISIHAC version of Rock/Paper/Scissors). If the players are given access to sound effects, they can often be expected to keep popping up later in the show, such as the sound of a punch in retaliation for an insult. Very often any attempt at playing the game will be abandoned in favour of playing as many random sound effects as quickly as possible.

On one show, the players and the chairman were surprised to discover the teams regular buzzers had been inexplicably replaced with sound effects - Tim and Willy had a chicken, Barry and Graeme had a foghorn. This resulted in several bouts of chaos (*foghorn* "Samantha!") and a unique round of Censored Songs.

Humph: It's come to a pretty pass when the buzzers are funnier than the games.

Strongly Worded Letter: The letters from Mrs Trellis of North Wales would sometimes veer into this territory; not helped by the fact that she was often unaware of exactly what programme she was writing to.

"Dear Kenton, I was appalled on tuning in this morning to be bombarded with a torrent of blatant filth. With terms such as "large firm", "holding up well", "satisfying performance" and worst of all "job blows", it was the most offensive edition of the Today Programme Business Report ever.

Studio Audience: Recorded in front of one. They've got such a wide range of responses that they often add to the show — truly bad puns are given a Collective Groan, most of the Running Gags provoke cheering, and then there's the strange honor of having a single person applaud a joke, which Barry has fondly dubbed an "applau".

Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Averted after Willie Rushton's death. Recognising that he could never truly be replaced (and the possible replacements were mostly much younger comics with different styles), his seat was instead turned into a rotating guest spot.

Take a Third Option: In a round of Blind Date, Tim has a choice between three contestants (who are, of course, Barry, Graeme and Willie). He chooses number four - Colin Sell.

Take That!: Humph gets to deliver a lot of them, mostly against the team members and Colin Sell, occasionally against other broadcasters.

And sometimes the panellists:

[In the Mystery Illness round, Barry's complaint is that he is turning into Ricky Gervais]

Graeme: He was alright until he left The Office, then something weird happened...

Tim and Graeme both sometimes name-check and mock the BBC executives who hate The Goodies and try and stop it being released on DVD.

The team members take friendly shots at each other quite often, as well.

(in a round of Household Hints)

Humph: Well, the correct answer is that you take a cardboard box, fill it with chocolate bisc—(begins laughing)—I don't believe this—

Barry: Fill it with what?

Humph: Barry, did you write this?

Barry: No I didn't, Humph.

Tim: Barry didn't write it; you're laughing!

The show was parodied in the 1990s in a brief sketch on On The Hour. According to The Clue Biblenote The Fully Authorised History of "I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue" from Footlights to Mornington Crescent, by Jem Roberts Graeme Garden said he enjoyed the sketch, adding that he looked forward to hearing On The Hour's fiftieth series.

Take That, Audience!: Aimed at the Studio Audience more often than the listeners at home, since they're the ones responding enthusiastically to this show which the host apparently hates.

Temporary Substitute: In one game of Sound Charades, Tony Hawks was substituting for Barry Cryer. His sketch with Graeme Garden was played between Angus and Dougal ("Where's Hamish?" "He's having his tea.")

Tempting Fate: Humph once introduced a round of Mornington Crescent by saying "I hope we won't have any of the pointless bickering that has plagued this round in the past", and said that Tim could start. Graeme immediately snapped "Why does he get to start?"

Terrible Pick-Up Lines: There have been two rounds based on this. One was "themed pick-up lines" for a given profession or hobby (so for example, for birdwatchers "If I told you I knew Bill Oddie, would you hold it against me?") The other was suggesting replies to terrible pick-up lines:

Jack: Are you tired, because you've been running through my mind all night?

Barry: It was full of wide-open spaces.

The Show Must Go On: Mildly — there've been a few episodes in which the buzzers have malfunctioned or been mislabelled.

In another episode, Graeme had Bell's Palsy while recording. He didn't bring it up until it was his turn in One Song To The Tune Of Another.

Graeme: That reminds me, I've got 'pink' and 'blue' in this song, and you won't have noticed this, but I have a touch of what is called Bell's Palsy at the moment...which means half my face has frozen. So I have trouble saying 'p' as in 'pink', and 'b' as in 'blue'...and it's rather cruel of them to call it 'Bell's Palsy'!

Thrifty Scot: Hamish and Dougal. Many listeners don't realise that their starting Catch-Phrase "You'll have had your tea?" is a stereotypical Scots phrase with the subtext that "...because I'm certainly not spending money to feed you if you say no".

Dougal: Will you take a dram? Angus: I am no longer a whisky drinker, as well you know! Dougal: Indeed, that's why I offered.

The Trope Formerly Known as X: "The artist formerly known as Prince" was the subject for a round of "Limerick" which, in five lines, managed to work in just about everything that was ludicrous about the situation.

And here it is:

The Artist Formerly Known As Prince;

On stage he would waddle, and mince.

Then just for a giggle,

Changed his name to a squiggle,

And nobody's heard from him since.

Tomato Surprise: A few games rely on the fact that there's no visual aspect for the joke. During a round of "Who Am I?", where the panellists had post-it notes with the name of a celebrity written on them attached to their heads and had to ask questions to find out who they were, all four of them managed to correctly guess the celebrity almost instantly. At the end of the round?

Jack: I think next time we might try the other version, with the names written on the outside.

T-Word Euphemism: An inversion by Jeremy Hardy during his first appearance in 1996. Hardy fumbles a line, swears and then apologises 'for using the fuck-w'. (This has been left in the CD of the live recording, but obviously was edited out of the broadcast.)

Unexpectedly Obscure Answer: It was a Running Gag in the "Politician's Ball" episode, where they played a game of 'Strip Quiz', which built on the 'old-fashioned principles of strip poker', that Tim got all the impossible questions, whereas everyone else got very elementary ones.

Humph: Now, pay attention here, because I'm going to go quite fast, and these are quite tricky questions. Barry, you first — what is the capital of England?

Barry: London!

Humph: Willie — what is one and one?

Willie: Two...?

Humph: Graeme — what is the name of the Queen of England?

Graeme: Elizabeth.

Humph: Tim — what is the pharmacopean name for turpentine?

Tim: ...Nigel?

Humph: No, I'm sorry — the word is 'terebinthina'. Tim loses his shirt on that one.

Unwinnable by Design: The variation of Mornington Crescent where stations with faulty elevators are wild, played when Mornington Crescent had a faulty elevator.

Graeme: As a point of information, mister chairman - How does this game end?

Humph: I've been saying that for seventeen years.

Also, the variant where rule 12 no longer applies - Rule 12 being the one that says 'The first person who says "Mornington Crescent" is the winner."

When they played "The Quiz of Quizzes", an intentionally absurd mash-up of various quiz show formats:

Humph: Barry, what's the first letter of the word 'aardvark': is it A, B, C or D?

Barry: Can I go 50-50, Humph?

Humph: Very well. Computer, take away one wrong answer and one right answer. Barry, you have two wrong answers left. Which do you go for?

Vitriolic Best Buds: Neither the chairman nor any of the panellists have any qualms about making insulting jokes about one another. Despite this, the close friendship of everyone on the show is obvious.

Humph mentioned in an interview that Colin's mother had been upset with him regarding the "awful things" he said about her son. He clarified that, off-stage, they were very good friends.

The Voiceless: Samantha, and her occasional replacements Monica and Sven.

"As is customary, Samantha spent some time down in the gramophone library earlier, fetching the hit singles she's chosen. She's become quite friendly with the two elderly archivists, Jack and Arthur. They've recently gone part-time, so Samantha's come to a working arrangement — she does the paperwork, Arthur gets her 45s out and Jack's off all afternoon."

Colin Sell is also voiceless insofar as he has no microphone and can't return any of the endless shots taken at him. (Occasionally he says something loud enough to be heard in the background or communicates via the piano, like falling on the keyboard in response to being "killed".)

In Christmas Clue he played the part of Cratchit but, as the character is too poor to buy a microphone, he's still only barely audible.

He got a couple of properly audible lines in the Hogmanay Special of spin-off show Hamish & Dougal when he played himself (with Humph as the Laird's butler, Lyttleton)

With Lyrics: "One Song to the Tune of Another" can become this if the second song doesn't normally have lyrics.

Word Salad Title: "Cheddar Gorge", the game where the panellists take turns saying one word at a time to keep the sentence going on as long as possible. The introduction often claims that the title is self-explanatory. By contrast, "One Song to the Tune of Another", which is as self-explanatory as you could ask for, is treated as a Word Salad Title and introduced with an overly-elaborate analogy to make things "clearer".

Yes-Man: Panellists would occasionally play this for laughs, sucking up to Humph in the most obvious fashion. Once subverted, when Barry mentioned what a marvellous chairman he was and what a great job he was doing. Humph awarded him and Graeme ten points for prefacing with that, and awarded Tim and Willie fifteen points for not starting with that.

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